Six challenges in measuring the quality of health care

Quality monitoring is becoming an accepted method for purchasers, patients, and providers to evaluate the value of health care expenditures. Important advances in the science of quality measurement have occurred over the past decade, but many challenges remain to be addressed so that quality monitoring may realize its potential as a counterforce to the demands of cost containment. This paper describes six such challenges (balancing perspectives, defining accountability, establishing criteria, identifying reporting requirements, minimizing conflict between financial and quality goals, and developing information systems) and proposes some ways in which the public and private sectors might collaborate to respond effectively.